Urban Renewal

xxiv.

Here we are, high-tailing on a fast ferryaway from Perseus’s birthplace, away from those beacheswith names like Ganema, Sykamia, Megalo Livadi,whose scythe-like coves left us speechlessand shockingly bold as we unpeeled our bathing suitslike human wrappers, and let pebbly sand stickto our backs while the sun conducted its trade routes.We ask: Why are we leaving again? Homesickwe are not, though we did wish Langston & Dylanhere, so as to astonish that we were the betterparents, and surely I cursed the island for its urchinswho fired missiles when my hand sought treasuresnear their spiky planets. I understand now whychildren and the dead are abandoned. Heaven is a cultof the irrational. In my glazed-over eyes, your bodyfound an ally; I rubbed cream until the tumultof our lives cured right on the spot. Now on deck,an illness returns; paradise dwindles to a speck.